The Greene County Compensation Board met Wednesday.
Representatives of each elected county official made their initial proposal. Steve Haupert represented Sheriff Jack Williams and proposed a three-percent raise in salary to be closer to the average of similar sized counties in the surrounding area to Greene County. Tom Heater represented County Attorney Thomas Laehn. He recommended a six-percent salary increase to again match similar population-size counties. Board member Guy Richardson mentioned that Laehn was also doing civil and other legal county work which the previous county attorney hadn’t done and the county had to hire an outside firm to do.
County Treasurer Katlynn Gannon-Mechaelsen’s representative was Tim Heisterkamp. He said Gannon-Mechaelsen wasn’t requesting an increase since she was newly elected, but he felt she deserved to have a cost of living increase and that her designated deputy get an increase. Jody Paup represented County Recorder Marcia Tasler. She suggested Tasler receive a four-percent salary increase with her 41 years of experience in the recorder’s office and being the fourth-longest serving county recorder in the state’s history.
Richardson then spoke on behalf of County Auditor Jane Heun. He noted that Heun’s main purpose was to keep the Supervisors informed and keep the county running by putting together the budget. He suggested specific dollar amount raises instead of percentages.
Mary Jane Fields represented the Supervisors. She said the Supervisors took a 2.5-percent raise in salaries last year, but didn’t take a raise the year before. She had suggested a $1,000 raise to each of the Supervisors.
The elected officials in attendance were given a chance to speak before the vote took place. Richardson proposed specific dollar raises for each of the elected officials including: county attorney at $6,800, auditor at $5,000, recorder and sheriff at $3,000, $1,700 for treasurer and $5,000 total for supervisors. Fields amended Richardson’s motion and added an additional $500 to the suggested amount for the recorder’s increase. The motion was then seconded by Haupert and unanimously approved by the Board. Fields explains why the Board went with dollar amount raises instead of percentages.
“Well in the first place jobs are not necessarily always equal. We have new people in new positions and some of them didn’t request a raise and some of them just said, ‘Whenever you do is fine.’ And we just felt that to keep them at the 95-percent average of the state, which we try to do, that that was the easiest way to do it.”
Their recommendation will now go to the Supervisors to make the final decision when they finalize the county budget ahead of the 2020 fiscal year.